The Chains of Hope
by Lunarium Prince
Summary: In a time where corruption, greed, and evil, is growing rapidly, the bridge of hope crumbles beneath these forces. Many think this brigde is beyond repair, beyond their reach, beyond hope. But...the few who truly believe can repair it with... Rated T for instances of language.
1. Prolouge

** Edit: Yes, some of you may have already seen this, but I am re-uploading it with better expectations and because I want to 1) Fix the small errors in this fiction. 2) Add new stuff to make it longer and more interesting, like a tourist trap. And 3) Awesomesauce! :D**

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**This is my first ever story so it may be kind of sketchy. But, I'm open to any kind of criticism and suggestions. ESPECIALLY grammar errors. Enjoy.**

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In a period of time lived many kingdoms in a era of peace and prosperity. During that time, the land wasn't so divided and everyone was accepted no matter where they came from, as if they were all connected one way or another, like a bridge. With the large population and everyone of the kingdoms continuously inventing something from time to time, a vast amount of wealth was accumulated in a very short time. But everyone knows as actions are made, consequences follows, regardless of time.

Seeds of greed grew under the soils of the kingdom, but was not ready to bloom. It needed a jolt, or a spark of some kind. And that's where things took a turn for the worst. That was a year after the chaos emeralds were discovered, and a certain kingdom made it's move. The kingdom of Ordine and it's chief, Tsukimaru, quickly sent out secret troops to retrieve the chaos emerald and harness it's powers. Unfortunately for them, the other nations found and quickly dispatched of Tsukimaru and his troops and returned the chaos emeralds. Then, something completely unexpected happened. War broke out between Ordine and Fede between the stupidest of things. War dragged the other greed-filled nations right into the feud. Meanwhile, the chaos emeralds, was taken to a powerful fortress for the protection of us all. But over time, their protection breaks away, little by little by the daily attacks of the fortress, especially since they don't have the time to really fix it up.

One day, Tsukimaru sent over half his troops to take down the fortress, and succeeded. The walls broke and the warriors inside were quickly overwhelmed and slaughtered. The troops marched into the treasury to see the Chaos Emeralds nowhere to be found, but only a lone family. They threatened the father to give him the chaos emeralds and the man only replied "The emeralds will never be used by evil. Kill me if you want, but then the chaos emeralds are gone forever, as they aren't even in the fortress." The troops then angrily proceeded to knock him out with a kick to the face.

When he woke up, he found no one, not even his family, in the entire fortress. Only a note attached to his forehead that said 'We took away your family and if you want them not to be hung, or worse, then deliver the seven chaos emeralds to the gates of Ordine in seven days.' Worried about his family, he traveled to the chaos emerald's hiding spot and hid them in his fur, to avoid capture. As he was on his sixth day and nearing the kingdom of Ordine, he saw in a local paper, his wife's head in a bloody basket and his daughter's head in the guillotine. "They lied..."

In rage, he marched towards the entrance of the Ordine and did what hasn't been done ever since the chaos emeralds were first created. The chaos emeralds swirled around him until they all came together in the man's body, giving him a bright, yellow look with the ability to float. He destroyed Ordine and all of it's inhabitants with overwhelming power in a matter of minutes, including Tsukimaru. Just as quickly as he destroyed the kingdom, he disappeared, but the press reported that first-hand demonstration of the emerald's powers, along with the person using it. That drew the kingdoms into total chaos and war, destroying the bridges that connects the country and truly dividing everything up. As for the chaos emeralds, they were never seen again...until...

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"Stop this! Have you people gone mad?" Exclaimed the armored echidna, who was deflecting the many attacks of his brethren with his French bayonet.

The chief, sitting in his palanquin behind his warriors, manned by mixed animal slaves he and his kingdom had captured, chuckled with delight. "Mad? Oh no, no, no. We just want you to tell us where are the chaos emeralds." The chief said, giving off a devilish smirk.

This echidna, enraged by what the chief had dribbled out of his mouth, jumped back to a wall and implanted his left fist into it to avoid being impaled while he was speaking. "And you ask me by sending your elite troops after me? You people are all the same! Poisoned by the art of war and corrupted by the riches that come out of it!"

"We need those emeralds to create peace and stop the war!" The chief fumed.

The echidna sheathed his sword and climbed up to the roof of the stone building. He then turned towards the chief and his elite warriors. "Stop the war? Your going to turn everyone into slaves and take their land! That WILL lead to even more violence and hate! The path you are taking will lead to utter chaos and pure, growing hate!" The enraged echidna yelled out.

"Bach! I have had enough of your tom-foolery!" The chief exclaimed, his temper at it's boiling point. "Men, take him down!"

The mass army of echidnas raced towards the armored warrior, with cries of war.

He knew he couldn't handle those warriors all by himself so he jumped up into the air and glided in the opposite direction.

"Damn! The whole city is going to be after me now! I better escape this hellzone before they even have the chance to capture me, or worse."

He was currently doing good, as he was nearing the kingdom limits…until… "Fire!" A exclaim was heard as the gliding echidna was shot right in his left shoulder by a arrow, causing him to lose his flight stance as he dropped like a rock towards the ground.

A thump was heard as the armored echidna dropped to the ground, blood running down his arrow wound with the arrow still inside his shoulder.

"Damn it!" The Echidna exclaimed, taking his right hand and quickly pulls out the arrow and throws it aside, making sure he didn't damage himself anymore. He held his flesh wound and continues to race towards the exit.

"There he is! There's the traitor!"

"Get him! We can't let treasonous seeds sprout inside our kingdom!"

AS the echidna looked back, he saw a mob of warriors in pursuit of him, knowing what they would do to him if they caught him. -_Oh crap, this is cutting it close!- _The echidna sped up to outrun a possible cause of his death.

_-There's the gate! I'm going to make it!-_ The gates was in sight as the echidna was overjoyed inside his mind as he raced towards the gate. As he was a mere bear-step away from escape and freedom, the gate suddenly dropped down when he was a few feet away from it, the impact of it sends him back a few feet and knocks him over.

-_Crap! It's closed! Now do I do? Wait a minute... My grandfather never gave up in his lifetime and he showed me the same thing, overcoming anything that gets in my way so if he can do it, then I can too! My grandfather never gave up and I won't give up either! I'll push myself to do the impossible! I WON'T GIVE UP!-_

The echidna looked at the gate and the guard manning while shouting "This gate is not an obstacle!" as he started to climb the gate, with all of his remaining strength that was drained away from running with his bulky armor.

As he was nearing the top, a sudden shot in the leg made him grunt in pain, causing him to lose his grip on the gate and plummet towards the earth. As he faceplanted into the ground, he muttered a few curses as he looked at the arrow stuck inside his leg, wondering where did it come from until his attention was pulled towards the army of echidnas racing right towards him.

"I was so close!" The echidna exclaimed, standing up weakly and staring towards the elite army of the chief, feeling his death is imminent. He unsheathes his bayonet, putting himself into a battle position as he watched the army stop a few yards away from him, splitting up to form a gap in the middle of the two armies.

The wounded echidna watched as a certain palanquin was being carried straight through the gap, until it reached the front, as the Chief stood up, staring the armored echidna dead in the face.

"You are surrounded you traitor! You have no hope of escape! If you tell us where the chaos emeralds are, I assure you, you can spend the rest of your days free in the city. If you refuse my request," The chief squinted at him "…well, you can say goodbye to your life as we take it away from you ... slowly … and painfully."

"I will not give the chaos emeralds to people who want to use it's powers for corrupt and evil purposes chief Tomasuto! I would rather have my head hang in your den than give the emeralds to you!" The echidna boomed, gasping each time he addressed a few words, for he was no match for even a apprentice warrior in his current condition.

The chief echidna looked away for a moment, disappointed at how he couldn't do it the easy way. After a moment's time, the chief turned his head to, by his assumption, the treasonous fiend and roared "Very well! While we will look for the chaos emeralds, your head will be hanging on my den! Ready men! On the count of three, you charge and murder him well! But keep his head intact." As the chief shouted, the soldiers take their position, fixating their eyes onto the single echidna.

-_I guess this is the end of the road. In a few seconds, I'll be massacred. I guess this is the perfect time to say my grandpa's little quote I always hear him say. Now what was it again? ...Oh yea!- _The echidna, staring death in the face, sits down in folded position, closing his eyes as he is saying his final words while fear built up inside him.

"The servers are the seven chaos."

"One!"

"Chaos is power."

"Two!"

"Power enriched by the heart."

"Three!"

"The controller is the one who unifies the chaos.

"Charge!" The chief shouted, as the soldiers, on cue, charged in, ready to kill the doomed echidna.

The echidna opens his eyes and gives off and gives off a strangely warm smile. "And opens their heart out."

The next moments became a blur to him as he was suddenly enveloped in a bright light, as soldiers were nearing him. As they were mere feet away from him…

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**After Notes: Yes this is my first story, but I feel I did pretty good for a first chapter, even if it did sound a bit cheesy. And the cliff hanger just added to it's awesome-ness. Of course, I'll have to fill in more words, paragraphs, and descriptive language with a bonus of comedic dialouge. You may have noticed I didn't give the main character a name yet. Well…I SAID TOO MUCH! NO ONE MAY SEE THE WIZARD! *disappears***


	2. Disappearance

**Edit: Well this is my second time uploading this stuff, I kinda just realize that there were no official characters until the next chapter. Go figure. :{**

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**Well here is the ne****w one. It's definitely going to be longer than the first chapter. Oh, and I would to give thanks to my first reviewers: TheShadowUzumaki and RuningWitSizorz. Thanks guys! You're the best! Also, I think it's time for this.**

**Disclaimer: All official characters belong to Sega and it's associates, for if it belonged to me, there would be either no Amy or no romance. (Hey, the wars are crazy and Sonic's suppose to be a kid's icon.)**

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The echidna, looking at certain death right before his eye, suddenly winces as a sphere of light engulfs him. The oncoming soldiers stopped and covered their eyes, to avoid being blinded by the strange light. The light momentarily shined it's brightest until it dimmed down. As the soldiers went to take a look at the subsiding light, they find the echidna was nowhere to be seen. Chatter quickly risen after the spectacle of light.

"He's disappeared!"

"How did that happen? We had him cornered!"

"Where did he go?"

"That slippery rat!"

"Enough" The loud voice boomed as the conversations were quickly silenced and full attention was drawn towards their chief. "That traitor must have used some sort of light trick to divert our eyes away enough for him to escape. But, by my knowledge, I know he is still in this kingdom, for even the archers would've still seen him climb up the stone walls and we have them surrounding the whole city. He must be neaAHH!"

The chief, who was giving his speech was disrupted by the sudden shift of balance in the palanquin that caused him to lose him balance and lean to the left side of the palanquin, making him fall out and land on his head with a pained groan.

There were gasps as to the events that suddenly happened. The warriors were frozen in shock, unable to move. There was a few moments of silence…other then the chief's groans until one apprentice warrior was brave enough to actually walk up to the chief and ask: "Chief, are you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay? Help me up!" exclaimed the fallen chief, his temper already topped.

The warrior trainee that had came to him pulled him up by dunking down, putting his shoulder under his armpit, and plainly stands up, with little problem at all.

Chief Tomasuto, enraged by the warrior's reaction time to his fall, yelled: "What gave you the nerve to not help me up sooner?"

The warrior, blinking at the chief in confusion and in fear of saying anything that will enrage him, closed him eyed and quickly stated: "My apologizes chief, but I was stunned to see you fall over."

"Bach!" The chief grunted as he wrenched his way out of the warrior's support and turned towards the concerned warriors. "And why didn't you lazy warriors failed to even try to help me?" The chief boomed.

The sudden voice directed towards them snapped them out of their frozen state, as they were looking at one another, ashamed. Not only by their lacking usefulness, but ashamed that a apprentice actually did what the entire army of elite soldiers could not.

The chief let out a sigh as he looked at the ashamed warrior faces before turning his head towards the palanquin as he looked towards the slaves that are manning the make-shift vehicle. These echidnas, like most of this country, are still at war with the rest of the country. Their goal is, like everyone else, to rule the country. Now normally when a kingdom captures a another kingdom or land, they take no prisoners. No exceptions. But this kingdom, whenever possible, take as much prisoners as they can get. These are a people of war and money, not having much care for there other services.

When they actually capture a prisoner of war, they put him/her through the process, only in this kingdom, known as Slavorization. The process is made swift and easy to mark the captured as a slave. They take the tail of the unlucky, captured victim and cuts it off completely, leaving not even a stub. Then they bathe the war slave in dung, or animal waste to create that special shade of brown they want. This step is done until the look, smell and color they wanted. The _Slavorized_ animal is thrown into a cell until they found a suitable job for it. What a life...

The prisoners that were manning the chief's palanquin is a cat, a wolf, a monkey, and a limp, groaning fox, all of them Slavorized, there emotions brutally beaten out of them. They were considerably weak, due to their mal-nutrition and heavy labor, but the fox had gave out, it's body's energy and will, gone.

"What is the meaning of this? Letting your master fall off his palanquin!" The Chief boomed, his eyes squinted onto the pained fox.

"I…have…not the will…to go on…" The serious, but raspy voiced fox replied, as he is laying flat, like a pancake.

Tomasuta's anger, which has now reached new levels, shouted: "If you don't get off the ground in five seconds, you existence will be crushed under this kingdom!"

As the chief waited his allowed time, he closed his eyes and tilted his head toward the sky as he counted in his head. The fox tried his best to get up, pushing his arms against the ground, but to no avail.

"Five!" The chief shouted, looking upon the brown, seemingly dead fox. The chief, driven by anger, roared: "Bach! You annoying pest! Guards!" The elite warriors quickly looked in loyalty at the chief. "Make sure this….**slave **gets what he deserves for disobeying me. And make it…painful, very painful!" The chief orders, emphasizing the "slave" part.

"No…No, no, no! Please, give me another chance!" The fox raspingly replied, as he was picked up by two guards by the arm and dragged away.

"Noooooo!" His voice echoed as he was now out of sight.

Tomasuto turned quickly towards the rest of his warriors and boomed "Attention, quickly! With all the commotion going on, he could be very well hidden by now! Go out there and find. That. Traitor! I don't care if you barge into houses, just do it! Do it! DO IT! "The chief said, the volume of his voice rising to ear-scaring levels."

The elite troops, scrambled by the chief's overwhelming voice, quickly regained their senses and dispersed to find the traitor.

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"Ugh…" The wounded echidna groaned, his head throbbing from that sudden bright light., wondering what had happened. He peered his eyes open a little bit, to see concerned chao surrounding him. The chao looked relieved and cheered happily by dancing around him.

"Chao? Chao don't live in this part of the country." He grumbled, slowly pushing his arms against the ground , which lifted himself into the sitting position. He felt knew he was somewhere completely different from the last place he was in, looking around at his surroundings, which was mainly a grassy plain with a few pillars placed in a flat, stoney ring. In the middle of the plains lies a cake-style, wide, cone-style stone altar in the middle of it with a staircase leading to the top. The top contains seven pillars perfectly proportioned around what looks like a giant, green chaos emerald. On top of those pillars lies...the seven chaos emeralds.

-_Wait a sec... I know this place! It's from my grandpa's stuff! From way back..._

_**(Flashback)**_

There was a small wooden cabin out in the middle of the country, back when that area was still in peace. A young echidna was seen gleefully playing with a wooden top, a toy that was highly popular back than. He was wearing a white shirt with a red zigzag pattern in the middle of it. His bottoms were red shorts with an orange zigzag pattern on the entirety of it. His clothing were all purely, and slightly expensively sown just for him. He was barefooted most of the time and he had two braids on each side of his head, with the exception of the front. The child loves to play, but not as much as he loved nature. He had a selfless and joyful personality that seemed like it can never be dampened by any rainy day.

"Hey champ! Time to come in! It's getting pretty late." An old, yet spirit-filled voice called.

"Alright grandpa!" The kid said as he ran inside. He shut the door and walked into his grandpa's treasure room to find him. Inside lies many old relics including maps, books, fossils, gems, and much more either on shelves, hung on walls, on a piece of furniture, or just all scrambled up on his desk. "Grandpa? Where are you?"

"Down here!" A voice came from a piled of paper and books. The child turned to the pile and quickly lifted it off his back and set it down next to the desk. The boy, with concern in his voice, asked "You okay gramps? You're not as strong as you used to be."

This made the old man laugh in delight. "Of course i'm not. But I'm still strong enough to survive a bunch of falling books!"

The grandson couldn't help, but laugh with his grandpa. "Well I'm going to see if dinner is ready. Good da-" The boy said, but was interrupted by a interesting looking sketch on the floor. He turned it a few times to try to figure out what it is, but it was of no use. After a brief amount flips and turns, the joyous child finally gave up and asked "Hey grandpa. What is this picture?" while flipping the sketch to his elder's views.

"Haha!" 'Gramps' laughed. "I haven't seen this old thing in such a long time. I thought it was lost forever." He pulled a chair from his desk next to his grandson and sat on it. "It's a sketch of the Altar of the Emeralds."

"Altar of the emeralds? What's that?"

"It's a place where seven mystical gems lay atop seven identical pillars on a stone altar. It's lush, green grass compliments the giant, green gem on top of the altar. They say the seven gems each grant the user great power."

There was a gleam in the grandson's cheerful face as he said: "So cool! I wish I had awesome power like that!"

The old man couldn't help, but chuckle at the innocent child's dream. "Well they say it's in a far-off land. Think you could actually make it there?"

"Course I can! As long as I don't give up, I'll be there in no time! Right gramps?"

The elder cracked a smile and gave a positive thumbs up as shouted "Yup! Just believe and you can truly see!"

They both went into a fit of laughter until..."Father, it's time for dinner! Did you bring him in yet?"

"Yea, I got him right here!" He shouted" We'll be there faster than you can say lickety split on a popsicle stick!"

"Alright then." The voice replied.

The old man stood up and placed his chair back into his desk. "Come on now champ! Your mother's got dinner set and we don't wan't to be the only ones with cold food."

"Right! Let's go then!" The boy exclaimed as he ran towards the kitchen. The last thing he heard from his grandpa as he was walking towards the kitchen was: "That boy..."

**_(Flashback_ _End)_**

"It's the Altar of the Emeralds, from his story!" He suddenly piped up, scaring the chao around him and causing them to ran away frantically. "But why am I here? How did I get here? Wh-..." he questioned, but was interrupted by what he saw in front of him. He thought he was seeing things, because if he isn't, then he is in deep, deeep trouble.

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**Yes, Another cliffhanger, but this one was a more wicked more. Just totally rad****ical! XD I think I had a few hourly writers block, but then as I progressed, it became natural! I feel like I left something out…but, in the third chapter, I'll be clear as daylight! Then next chapter, even I can't wait for, but that doesn't mean I rush. -3- Anyways, cya later! *burns up to a crisp in broad daylight***


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